


Just one glance (is never enough)

by NicePlaceToBe



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-29
Updated: 2020-04-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:07:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23909695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NicePlaceToBe/pseuds/NicePlaceToBe
Summary: Jyn Erso was pissed off. This was fairly unsurprising to Cassian Andor.Or:Jyn and Cassian got partnered together for a project but Jyn is a little too intimidated to just talk to him, so they were going to have to do things the awkward way- AKA try and pull it all together over a few days when Jyn has a change of heart.
Relationships: Bodhi Rook/Luke Skywalker, Cassian Andor/Jyn Erso, Leia Organa/Han Solo, Shara Bey/Kes Dameron
Comments: 5
Kudos: 75





	Just one glance (is never enough)

**Author's Note:**

> This is kind of really poorly written, so I'm sorry, but I've always wanted to write something for this ship and I figure sleep-deprived and unedited is probably better than nothing. 
> 
> Let me know what you think!

Jyn Erso was pissed off.

This was fairly unsurprising to Cassian Andor. From what he had observed of the surly girl in his Law lecture, she was often irritated, as well as late, sharp-tongued and (from an _entirely objective_ point of view) devastatingly attractive.

Because that’s what Cassian was- an observer. He watched, he noticed things, he filed them away so he could make inferences and understand the people around him. He was good at it- he’d been doing it for as long as he could remember. Because despite growing up in America and being born there, people still judged (even if they didn’t explicitly say it, he could see it in the sweep of his body, the side glances they gave, the whispers, pointed questions and insistent drug tests- he can’t remember the last time when he was travelling and he hadn’t been pulled over for a ‘random’ drug/bomb test by security).

Maybe that’s why he wanted to be a lawyer, so there was a little more balance- so maybe he could make some kids not have to do the things he did, face the scepticism and blind hate he did. So the things that happened to his parents weren’t repeated, so he might have a hand in the justice system, make it a little bit more just.

But getting through college was hard. Everything was _so expensive._

His abuela had encouraged him to chase his degree directly after high school rather than just taking care of her. It was a little relief that he could pay off _some_ of his student loans with his side-gig of and his part-time job at the library, but neither were paid particularly well and he really couldn’t afford to stay and retake any courses.

He had crunched the numbers and the years it would take him to pay off the loans already made him wince- he didn’t need them to get even worse. In every class, Cassian worked hard- because it was a rigged game and he couldn’t give anyone any more reasons to take off marks. In every course, to every teacher, Cassian Andor had to prove he was smart, that he _deserved_ to be marked without bias- it felt like he was already starting behind.

So when he got the news that he was going to be partners with Jyn Erso for a project that was worth 60% of their final grade… he wasn’t thrilled.

Of course he couldn’t have got Leia Organa (daughter of a senator and a future politician herself) who Cassian was friendly with, through Han Solo from the Falcon bar, or even Kes Dameron, another unlikely friend Cassian had somehow made in college and hadn’t been scared off by Kay.

Jyn Erso was brash. She was volatile. She was loud. Jyn Erso was unpredictable.

And Cassian didn’t particularly need anything unpredictable in his life.

He had been _observing_ her since the semester started- which Kay had pointed out sounded like he was a stalker and then asked if he would like the probability of Jyn not helping with the project at all, which Cassian had declined (" _It’s high, it’s very high")._

And while he knew more than the average person would about her, it wasn’t enough to be sure about Jyn. She acted rashly and cared little about herself- her knuckles were often bruised, as if she didn’t strap them properly when sparring or using a punching bag. Jyn was smart- she always had something to say, but her opinionated stance made her unpopular in the class, except for with Leia, with whom Jyn was close with. She fiddled with the necklace she always wore when she wasn’t listening in class- which was most of the time. Cassian knew Jyn was only in college because her father was a science professor and wanted her to get a higher education, so she got a discounted tuition.

(Maybe Cassian was a little bitter that she could show up to lectures late and not care about her education because she knew she was going to excel while Cassian was busting his ass to make sure his professors gave him a passing grade. It probably didn’t help that there was something about Jyn that Cassian found undeniably intriguing, because Cassian didn’t _get crushes_ and yet there he was, with his attention drifting to her every few minutes. It was rather irritating, and Cassian knew he was socially awkward enough already without throwing _romantic_ _interest_ in there.)

After class, Cassian went to give him her number- because surely it would be easier to actually _do it together-_ but Jyn had pulled her disappearing act and there was no sign of her. Luckily, he did manage to catch Leia.

“Hey Leia, would you mind passing my number on to Jyn?”

Leia had grinned at him then like a Cheshire Cat and he realised how his words could be misconstrued.

“Since we’re partners for the _project_ , so she can text me when she wants to meet up and do it.”

Her expression dropped a fraction but one of her eyebrows lifted regally, “Sure, sure, _that’s_ what you meant. Wouldn't have anything to do with the way you stare at her in class?”

Cassian felt his face warm and he fought to keep his expression blank.

“I don’t _stare_ ,” Cassian went to move around her, but Leia stopped him.

“You definitely stare.”

“No I don’t,” he started walking down the corridor and Leia spun around, lengthening her strides to catch up with him.

She laughed, “You’re so obvious. Why don’t you just ask her out?”

“I’m not doing that. I don’t even know her,” Cassian tried to redirect the conversation, “Who’s your partner?”

Leia Organa was smart enough to see through the transparent change of topic, but she knew Jyn was similarly stubborn when Leia had hinted about _her_ lingering gazes at Andor. She took pity on him now, allowing him to divert her attention.

“I got Dameron. Are you coming to the Falcon tonight? Chewie is hosting the trivia night and I bet Solo I could beat him.”

“Much as I’d hate to miss that, I’ve got tutoring. Might go for a beer with Kay later though.”

Leia nodded. She had been expecting that answer since she knew Cassian was a workaholic but still hoping to cajole a different answer out of him, especially when she had pulled Jyn into participating.

“Alright. I’ll pass your number on to Jyn but she said she’d be at the Falcon tonight, so maybe you can do some more staring and actually work up the nerve to talk to her.”

“ _Goodbye_ Leia,” he said turning a corner and slipping back into the crowd.

Leia watched him easily blend back into the mass and shook her head, frowning lightly. There was no way Cassian and Jyn weren’t going to be a couple by the end of this project.

(And if Leia had encouraged the professor to pair the two together- well, it was nobody’s business but her own, since she was aware of the pining and the only one doing anything about it. Leia Organa wasn’t one to just sit on her ass, especially since she knew she could make at least twenty bucks off it in the form of a wager with that idiot bartender, Han Solo).

————————————————————

Jyn does not consider herself to be any kind of tactful. She doesn’t, because she’s not.

She had never been particularly popular because of it and when her father made her come to get a college education, after having been absent for so much of her childhood, she was pleasantly surprised to find people who didn’t mind her being so blunt.

(After her mother died, Galen dumped Jyn on a godfather when she was angry and alone. Saw hadn’t been parental by any definition and most certainly hadn’t been prepared for the responsibilities it entailed- but neither was her real father, so Jyn ended up feeling more like damaged good than anything else. It was something she’d been working through since she started college and got a therapist, as she came back in touch with her father- which gave her _more_ than enough material to work with each week as she started healing from the weirdness of her upbringing.

Though Jyn had learnt something from Saw Gerrera- he taught her how to fight. Fight the injustice, fight the system, fight anyone who got in your way. Jyn had been fighting far longer than her father had decided to care about her, and she would keep fighting now Galen had decided she needed to go to college, even though she didn’t have a major and had been experimenting for the last few years.

She wanted to hate her father, she really did, but it was hard when he was trying so hard to reconnect with her. Their relationship was better than when it had been when she first started at university, but there was still tension and they _never_ talked about Lyra.)

Bodhi, who Jyn had met in a psychology course in her first year and had become as good as her brother, often chided her for not using social _finesse_ but Jyn had found that she really didn’t give a shit what anyone else thought of her- and if they need think she was blunt, rude and aggressive, she wasn’t going to correct them.

Unfortunately, this also meant that Jyn had absolutely no skill in hiding her expression, a fact Leia Organa realised five minutes into befriending her (God knows how that happened since Jyn was nowhere near as _diplomatic_ as the senator’s daughter- who was unflappable about everything _except_ Han Solo, as Jyn had found out as soon as the two were in the same room together).

To Leia’s credit, she had held off asking her new friend about the boy she was eyeing until she heard Jyn laughing at one of Andor’s quiet quips during class. When she did ask Jyn about him, she was floored.

What did Jyn say? That she had noticed Cassian Andor?

(Noticed the way he leaned back in his chair but his eyes never settled; the way he was quiet but always had something to say when called upon; the way his brain worked made her smile and think harder; the way his hair flopped over his eyes; the way his lips curled up slightly at the corners when he was amused- the way she wondered what she would have to do to get a full smile)

Yes, Jyn had noticed Cassian Andor, despite his seemingly trying to appear inconspicuous.

He almost tried too hard to melt into the background, because Jyn doesn’t know how he could ever fly under the radar. From the moment she first heard him speak, she had been trying to identify the accent in his soft voice- she heard him swearing in Spanish when he had dropped his books one day, but she didn’t have much else to go off.

She thought maybe, just maybe, by the end of semester she would have worked up nerve enough to have at least a brief conversation with him about _something_ , maybe the plague of constantly being pestered about having accents.

(Because there was something different about Cassian Andor, he wasn’t like anyone she had ever been interested in before- they had all been jackasses. Cassian- he was different. Jyn liked more than just his looks and she had no idea how to try and impress someone so quietly intimidating. Somehow, her usual approach didn’t seem right- and for some reason, Jyn couldn’t summon the courage to just go up to him. She thought she might melt if he gave her that judgemental _look_ he had doled out last lecture to someone talking out their ass.

Jyn was nervous. And she really hated being nervous.)

But here she was. Cassian was her partner for the project that made up majority of their grade. And Jyn had been avoiding him. She wasn’t quite ready to deal with the host of problems that would appear as soon as she acknowledged it. So when Leia had given her Cassian’s number with a knowing smile, Jyn had left it.

She had sat on it for weeks, until the week the project was due and Bodhi told her so eloquently,

“Jyn, I love you, but get your head out of your ass and call him. He’s going to hate you if you don’t pull your weight.”

Jyn would have loved to shoot something snarky back, but Bodhi didn’t deserve that- especially when he was right. Didn’t mean that Jyn dreaded having to explain herself any less.

When Jyn never texted him, Cassian couldn’t say he was surprised (surprised? No. Disappointed was another matter entirely).

It just meant he was going to have to do the project on his own- like every group project, because there is absolutely nothing even about the distribution of tasks in group-work.

He would have started sooner and got a jump on it early, but he had been busy with midterms coming up and needing to study himself and having extra tutoring sessions (and maybe he didn’t really want to accept that he was going to have to do it all on his own, but what else could he really expect).

So Cassian was in the library late, on the Tuesday before it was due. He had started, but was only about a quarter of the way through- he was settling in to perform a few all-nighters with a couple naps and fuelled only by caffeine, when Jyn passed his nook in the library. Tucked in a corner with small window and a power outlet, partially hidden from view and thus free to smuggle in snacks, it was an ideal study spot.

Jyn would have kept walking, but she was feeling fairly guilty about not having even sent a message and she figured it was probably best to do it in person anyway.

“Hey,” she said awkwardly, hovering by the table.

Cassian looked up and other than a slight raise of his eyebrows, his expression remained stoic.

“Hello.”

“Yeah, hi. I’m Jyn Erso- from your Law lecture? I’m your partner for the project.

“I know,” was his measured response, “I assumed since you didn’t contact me that I would be doing majority of the work.”

Cassian made an _artform_ out of keeping his tone level, holding the biting remarks on the tip of his tongue in check. He might have to do all the work so they didn’t fail, since Jyn obviously didn’t care, but that didn’t mean he was going to be _happy_ about having to drag someone else’s grade over the line as well.

“I’ve been busy. Work’s been crazy at the moment. But I’d hate to leave you with all the work.”

She hesitated slightly, because Cassian’s eyes were back down on the desk. A sudden spark of anger flared in her- which _she knew_ was a bad idea but keeping her temper has never been a strong suit and getting ignored hit just a little too close to home.

“Hey, I care about how I do in this project!”

“Could’ve fooled me.”

He didn’t look up, just kept studying the page in front of him. Jyn slumped into the chair beside him.

“I know I’ve been inconsistent; I’ve had work and class and everything,” she gestured at _everything,_ but Cassian’s attention was still firmly on the book.

“No, you haven’t. You’ve been trying to flunk out of college so your father, Galen Erso, will leave you alone,” he rebutted mildly, forcing himself to take a breath.

“How do you know that?” He didn’t respond and Jyn kept going, “Well I’m here now, Dad says if I ride out this semester, I can do whatever I want. So, what are we meant to be doing?”

Cassian’s shoulders set, and when he glanced up at her, his face was blank- but his eyes _burned_.

“What, suddenly this is real for you? Now that you can see a benefit of not failing for you, you’re going to try and help. Some of us don’t get to choose when we put in the effort.”

His accent got stronger when he was angry, Jyn noticed. She was about to snap back when she realised that everything he was saying was fair- she had just been avoiding him, much as she was loathe to admit it. And as Bodhi had said, it wasn’t fair for Jyn to just expect him to understand (God Jyn hated it when her brother was right). Jyn closed her mouth and took a deep breath.

“You're right. I’m… sorry. I shouldn’t have left you hanging like that.”

Cassian’s eyes widened slightly. There was something (everything) about Jyn that screamed she wasn’t one to apologise and her stilted tone told him this was an irregular occurrence.

In perhaps another situation, Cassian would have let his stubbornness or his pride take offence, but as it was, he was tired, it was due in two days and he wasn’t looking forward to carrying this project on his back, so he took the olive branch.

“That’s alright. If you still want to help, I haven’t started on the second part yet.”

Jyn grinned widely, and he felt something warm rise in his chest.

And Cassian just _knew,_ in that moment, that he was completely fucked.

\--------------------------------

_It just wasn’t fair_ , Jyn mused to herself a few hours into the study session, _that some people were so goddamn attractive without trying._

Cassian had barely looked at her since they had started working together and yet she found her eyes wandering him every so often- before she pulled them back onto the research she was doing and thanking whatever deity that was watching over her that he hadn’t seen her looking.

She was curious about why so close to the due date they hadn’t started- Cassian didn’t seem like the type to leave it to the last minute, even if he was down one partner- but in an uncharacteristic moment of showing incredible tact, Jyn figured it was probably best _not_ to ask, since she herself had been putting off the project as well.

There was something about Cassian that made Jyn feel even worse for having not held up her end. She knew he would have done the work- and then probably iced her out for the rest of her natural life, but he would have covered her on the grade front.

Which was weird, since he obviously knew she wasn’t in the class to any end, but maybe he just wanted to pass. Still. Cassian could have turned it in and confessed Jyn did none of the work- it was partially what she had expected, and maybe why she had let it drag on so long before talking to him.

But now she was here, and the guilt that had been lurking on the edge of her mind for not helping with the work because she was too ‘chicken’ (a word she _hated_ that now applied to her) to just _talk_ to Cassian.

Cassian would have not said anything, he really would have.

He didn’t care why Jyn hadn’t texted him. He wasn’t burning with curiosity at _why_ she had a change of heart. Cassian wasn’t desperately interested to know, since she obviously understood the content, knew how to research and wasn’t just plain lazy, what it was that made Jyn avoid doing this project. He didn’t care. He _didn’t_.

So maybe Cassian was curious. Sue him. But it was this curiosity that he had been struggling to contain until it slipped out of the pandora’s box in his mind and manifested itself quite nicely in the form of Cassian putting his foot in his mouth.

“Why did you change your mind? About the project.”

Jyn jerked her head up, surprised that he was talking to her, “What do you mean?”

“You just didn’t seem like you cared. And now you’re here,” Cassian shrugged slightly, not quite meeting her intense green gaze.

His words from before hung in the air- _some of us don’t get to choose when we put in the effort._

“I guess I had a change of heart,” Jyn said, eyebrows raised in a challenge.

A smile played on the edge of Cassian’s lips and he caught her eyes with his own. Jyn felt her cheeks warm slightly under his dark and serious but somehow warm gaze, and she reached to fiddle with the crystal that hung around her neck.

He followed her movements before letting his eyes drop and Jyn let out a light breath that she hadn’t realised she had been holding.

\-----------------------------

They were a few hours into the project and the sun was starting to set, painting the landscape in hues of gold as the purple of twilight began to overtake the sky. They’d done over half now, with two people working at the same time, and Cassian was tentatively hoping that he might actually get some sleep in the next forty-eight hours. Unfortunately, because referencing took eternity and they still had a way to go before actually finishing, it looked like tonight would not be that night.

He had been about to suggest taking a break, but when Cassian looked up at Jyn, his brain stopped functioning.

Jyn Erso was a sight to behold when she was spitting mad. (Cassian thought she was rather gorgeous at any given moment but spitting mad was a different kind of striking). Hair flying away from her usual business bun, cheeks flushed a bright pink, (although it was nowhere near the vivid hue of red Jyn was seeing).

“Fuckwits. They’re all absolute fuckwits,” she raged under her breath as some idiots she _knew_ were on sports scholarships tumbled into the library with a shopping trolley, obviously planning to get a good run up before going down the steep descent just past the library’s ramp.

“Think of it as evolution. It’s natural selection at its finest.”

Jyn snorted, grinning as she looked up at Cassian, who was surprised by the reaction to the quip directly from his inner monologue. Usually Kay would ignore it or one of his other friends (if he felt comfortable enough to weigh in with sarcastic commentary) would be a little surprised at his dry and cynical humour- but Jyn _laughed._ And then replied in kind,

“Surely this isn’t worthy of a Darwin Award though. I feel like they have so much _more_ to offer for when they get one of those.”

Her brilliant grin alone would have been enough to make the corners of Cassian’s lips kick up, but seeing that amused light in her eye brightened her whole face and he doesn’t know how but Cassian is smiling widely, _properly,_ for the first time in… a long time.

Jyn didn’t seem to be aware of the full magnitude of this break-through, because her grin simply widened. She gestured to the buffoons now trying to push a shopping cart through the aisles, much to the chagrin of the harried library assistant, and asked

“Do you want to get out of here? I know a place we can go for some great food and we can come back once they’re gone.”

———————————————————

Jyn took him to a coffee shop just off campus and as soon as he stepped inside, Cassian felt his body relax, almost against his will. There was something in the air that complimented the warm lighting and wooden accents that made him feel at home.

Jyn smiled as she watched Cassian being hit by that same feeling of coming home, safety and warmth and nostalgia, that she had when she first entered the shop in her first year at university. It never faded, no matter how many times she came, but that first time was something special.

“Jyn! I thought you’d be coming today. And you brought a friend!”

“Hi Chirrut, yeah, I told Baze I would come by after work, but I got a little distracted.”

“There are no distractions, only the diversions of our paths,” Chirrut smiled serenely from across the counter and Jyn rolled her eyes.

She was more like Baze in that, like her seemingly solemn boss, she would never admit she believed in ‘the Force’ as Chirrut liked to call it. (Whatever _it_ was, Jyn was never really sure)

“I can sense your scepticism, child, but your friend is much more open to the idea, Jyn.”

Jyn threw a look over her shoulder at Cassian, still admiring the subtleties of the interior but obviously listening to their conversation.

“Cassian, this is Chirrut, he and his husband own this place and the small gym above it. Chirrut, this is Cassian, he’s my partner for a project.”

“Would that project you’re doing happen to be the one you’ve been taking extra shifts at the gym to avoid?” Chirrut asked innocently and Jyn cursed the man for his complete lack of subtlety.

“That’d be the one,” Cassian confirmed and Jyn _refused_ to glance at him and see the amusement she could hear in his tone.

Chirrut was delighted, he beamed and said, “Hello, Cassian, you’re a rather handsome young man. I wonder why Jyn hasn’t brought you around before!”

“You’re blind Chirrut,” Jyn felt the need to point out, “You can’t see him.”

“But I can _sense_ it Jyn.”

“Ah yes, I forgot that the all-powerful Force tells you who is and is not handsome,” Jyn responded, deadpan, trying to ignore the rising heat in her cheeks.

“It tells me that you would not be blushing now if he was not handsome-”

“Chirrut, you’re not terrorising little sister, are you?”

A bulk of a man appeared at the bottom of the staircase in the corner and Jyn could feel her luck changing as he walked behind the counter.

“Wouldn’t dream of it, dear,” Chirrut replied breezily to Baze as he gave his husband a kiss.

“Baze this is Cassian, Cassian this is Baze, he’s my boss and Chirrut’s husband,” Jyn introduced them and Cassian nodded to him.

Unfortunately, Jyn saw a light in Baze’s eye and all of a sudden, she realised she may have made a grave error in trusting Baze more than Chirrut. They were married after all, and spending so many years together they surely would have rubbed off on each other.

“Is this the Cassian that Leia and Bodhi were talking about last time you came?” 

Jyn’s mind was thrown back to _that_ memorable visit when Bodhi was trying to encourage Jyn to _just talk to him_ while Leia practically shouted about Jyn ( _allegedly)_ having a crush on him.

“ _No_.”

“Really? Because now that you mention it, Cassian isn’t all that common of a name-” Chirrut looked thrilled at this turn of events. 

Jyn really didn’t need (any _more_ of _)_ her found family to interrogate her about Cassian- Leia and Bodhi had both already covered more than enough of that- so she interrupted

“Different Cassian. We’ll just take these menus and go sit down then.”

Jyn pulled Cassian to one of the tables furthest away from the counter before flopping into a chair.

Cassian had never felt so at ease in a place he had never been to before. The design of the café was lovely, sure, but Chirrut and Baze’s bantering and Jyn’s obvious comfort at being there made him feel like he was walking into a home, not a business.

Jyn’s obvious embarrassment at the good-natured teasing was similar to that of a younger sister by her siblings or of a child with exuberant parents. Cassian was curious about what Chirrut and Baze were hinting at, but he figured from the look in her eyes that Jyn was more inclined to shut him out than relent, so he instead asked,

“So you work at the gym upstairs?”

“Yeah, I teach some of the martial arts and combat classes. It’s pretty small but everyone who comes in is dedicated, and Baze is a good boss,” she smiled lightly at that and Cassian could tell she was proud of the little family she had here- Chirrut and Baze and Leia and Bodhi.

Cassian has always thought curiosity is his fatal character flaw, and who knew when he’d get another opportunity to talk to Jyn so he prodded further, “How’d you start working there?”

“I found this place when I started college and I spent more time here than in any lecture hall. Chirrut took a liking to me for some reason and showed me upstairs, and then when Baze saw me channelling some aggression at a punching bag, he offered me a job.”

“They seem like nice people,” Cassian noted, and he watched the way her hand came back up to twist her necklace as she looked a little wistful.

“The best,” Jyn paused for a moment before she eyed Cassian, “You look like you’ve done some fighting.”

He laughed at the unexpected turn of the conversation, “I’ve had some fighting experience. No training, but enough brawls to know I shouldn’t overestimate myself.”

“You’re welcome to come and take one of Jyn’s classes any time,” Chirrut chirped as he drew closer to them, “Would you like to order?”

Cassian opted just for coffee while Jyn had a tea and some soup. Cassian watched with fascination as the blind man moved gracefully around.

He leamed in confidentially, “How does he-?”

“He says he can sense things through ‘the Force’,” Jyn made air quotes with her hands, “I think that’s a load of bulls-”

“Jyn pretends she is a sceptic but she has far too much light in her to believe it,” Chirrut said in a sage sort of way and Cassian was inclined to take it seriously, but Jyn brushed it off. 

“He’s always saying things like that, big believer in fate, destiny and all that.”

Cassian had to swallow the question on the tip of his tongue about what _she_ believed. There was just something about Jyn Erso that made him want to know exactly what she was thinking.

“You can though,” Jyn added at his uncomprehending look, “Come to one of the classes.”

“I don’t think I’d be able to keep up with you,” Cassian said and Jyn could have sworn there was a shadow of mirth in his warming gaze.

Jyn doesn’t think there’s anything Cassian Andor couldn’t do- everything about him spoke of a confidence, a proficiency and accuracy in anything he attempted. To imagine he would be anywhere near uncoordinated was laughable.

“I’m sure you would. We run them all the way from beginner to advanced.”

His expression became a little more sombre as he amended

“Maybe, but I still think I’d be a little out of my depth- especially since you don’t even tape your hands. I’m not sure I could handle it.”

Jyn glanced down at her bruised and scarred knuckles that he had subtly nodded to. She knew she should probably tape them properly, but Jyn never has been patient and besides,

“I don’t need the tape, I’ve fought in worse before.”

It was true, she could still remember being at Saw’s and fighting until her knuckles bled and bruises led their motley covering all over her hands. It wasn’t something she had enjoyed, but it had made her tougher, and Jyn didn’t mind the reminder that she was stronger than most would have been at her age.

At least, that had been how she had always seen it- no use in crying over spilt milk.

Cassian leaned forward and Jyn watched his dark hair flop in just the right way, her breath caught. His intense gaze met her own as he said, in a voice that sent goose-bumps over her skin just imagining the other kinds of things he could say in that tone,

“Just because you’ve been through worse doesn’t mean you have to keep doing it. You did it once- that’s more than enough. You don’t have to prove you did it. It’s ok to take the benefit from a different life.”

He leaned back, satisfied, and left a mystified Jyn turning over his words.

Had she been doing that? Just trying to prove she still could, that she hadn’t changed? Saw would have told her she was getting soft- was Jyn just clinging to the only memories she had of a parental figure who had done anything to involve themselves in her life?

Cassian didn’t know who Jyn Erso was (which was mildly infuriating, since he had always been able to puzzle out a person by outward clues within a few minutes, and yet Jyn remained a mystery). But as he watched her expression flicker with uncertainty, surprise, stubbornness and acceptance- Cassian thinks he really wanted to learn Jyn Erso’s story.

Jyn dwelled on Cassian’s advice for a minute, turning it over in her mind, before she came back to herself and put a pin in it for another time.

“Where do you work?”

“I tutor some kids- a few high-schoolers, some people taking courses I’ve already taken- and I do some part-time at the library.”

Jyn’s eyes suddenly were alight with mischief again, “Have you ever had to deal with those boys trying to do a similar shopping cart scheme?”

Cassian grinned at the memory which suddenly hit him, “I remember one particular scheme they cooked up that was definitely worth the Darwin Award-”

They wouldn’t make it back to the library that night.

Instead, they sat in the café for hours- talking, laughing, swapping stories and quips. Cassian doesn’t think he’s ever felt so comfortable with someone so quickly and Jyn can’t remember the last time she laughed that hard.

When they left, it was with Chirrut telling Jyn she “absolutely had to bring Cassian back” and that he was welcome in Baze’s gym while Jyn hurried them out the door.

They agreed to meet in the library in the morning to finish off the project and as Cassian watched Jyn set off down the road, a little smile still painted on her lips, he felt something shift in his chest.

(And for some reason, he couldn’t stop the smile that broke across his face as he turned and walked in the opposite direction)

\----------------------------

“Don’t even look at me,” Jyn grumbled, settling into her chair, “It’s too early for anyone to be functioning.”

Cassian decided not to point out that nine am was _not_ that early and pushed a coffee towards her. They were in the same spot as yesterday and Jyn practically inhaled the caffeine boost

“Thank you. That tastes suspiciously like Chirrut’s coffee though,” she raised an eyebrow and Cassian shrugged.

“I figured it was a safe bet. Ready to get started?”

It didn’t take as long as it could have, but by the time 2pm rolled around, Jyn felt like her brain was about to explode. Luckily, with both of them working, it was a lot faster to get all the work done and they had finished. Admittedly with probably not as much as proof-reading as they should have done, but there is a point where if you read another word you have written, your eyes will start bleeding your will to live, so they cross-checked each other and did a quick review before slumping on the desk.

“How were you going to do all of this on your own?” Jyn asked Cassian, voice slightly muffled from where her face was planted on the table.

“A lot of caffeine, no sleep and a healthy dose of spite,” he replied easily, triple checking they’d covered everything and _saved it_ before closing his computer.

He lay his head on his books, letting out the breath he had been holding the moment they got the assignment. Unfortunately, Leia seemed to have the best timing in the world- one minute earlier or later and they would have looked busy. As it was, she appeared out of nowhere.

“Hey guys, what’re you up to?”

Jyn cracked an eye open and upon seeing her friend with a shit-eating grin, she closed it again.

“We just finished our assignment.”

“Really? That’s good timing! That means you can come to the Falcon tonight to celebrate. Han lost trivia and owes everyone drinks. Jyn?”

“I’m just _so busy_ Leia, you know how it is-”

“When you’re taking a bunch of random classes to no end? Yes, it must be so stressful,” Leia’s sarcasm was clear. “Cassian, you’ll come right?”

“I promised Kay I’d-”

Leia interrupted, “You can bring him!”

Cassian was scrabbling for an excuse to avoid an evening Leia’s knowing looks and Kay’s spewing of statistics, but he was distracted by the wild movements Jyn was making behind Leia’s turned back. He was trying to work out what big, frantic waving of arms in circles meant when Leia confirmed

“Great, so you’re coming, which means Jyn should absolutely come! I’ll let everyone know!”

Jyn slumped back over again as Leia waved them a cheery goodbye.

“I suppose it’s too late to schedule in being horrifically ill, isn’t it?”

“Might be a little suspicious,” Cassian agreed.

“I guess I’ll see you at the Falcon then?”

“See you then. Bye Jyn.”

\--------------------------

Cassian could do this. He could be a functioning human being for a few hours in Jyn’s presence. He could rein in Kay and make sure he didn’t offend anybody. Cassian could make sure he didn’t do anything stupid like stutter or blush every time Jyn looked at him. Cassian Andor could be a person.

As soon as he saw Jyn, he realised he could not do this. It just- it wasn’t fair that someone could be so gorgeous and cute and bold and brilliant. Her mascara brought out the green of her eyes, accentuated even more by the crystal that hung around her neck as usual. And speaking of accentuated, Cassian hated that he was even looking but, that skirt and those heels really did something for Jyn’s very long and very smooth legs and the images his mind was running wild with were not ones he should be entertaining.

“Is that Jyn Erso?” Kay asked as he walked into the bar behind him. He took Cassian’s silence for a yes and the tall man assessed her before he said, “She is fairly conventionally attractive. Would you like to know the chances of you embarrassing yourself?”

“No thanks Kay.”

“It’s high. It’s very high.”

He ignored his best friend, instead watching Jyn as she realised he had arrived and waved him over.

“Guys, this is Cassian,” she gestured to the group, most of which Cassian already knew.

“Hi, I think most of you already know Kay,” Cassian stuck a thumb at his friend standing beside him.

Han Solo and Chewie nodded to him from behind the bar, while Leia, Kes Dameron and Shara Bey all grinned at Cassian. 

“Oh, so _this_ is Cassian,” the man sitting closest to Jyn smiled broadly, unsubtly jabbing Jyn with his elbow.

“And they say _I’ve_ got no tact,” Cassian could have sworn he heard Jyn mutter before she raised her voice and said, “This is Bodhi, and this is Bodhi’s boyfriend and Leia’s brother Luke. I think you already know everyone else?”

Cassian nodded, grabbing a beer as he slipped into the booth and into the conversation. It wasn’t until an hour later that some people started dancing and Jyn went to the bathroom that Cassian could, as casually as possible, ask Bodhi (who he had discovered to be not only Jyn’s best friend but also very good-natured and entirely in love with his boyfriend), 

“How did you know who I was?”

“Jyn mentioned you, about the project and everything,” Bodhi gestured at the hallway she had disappeared down, “I’m just glad she helped you with the work. She wanted to, but you know.”

Cassian shook his head. He didn’t know.

“I mean since she can barely string together a sentence around you.”

Bodhi would have been more subtle, he would have, but he knew Jyn would never bring it up- and he had put his money on the two getting together today, so a little shove in the right direction surely wouldn’t go astray.

Cassian’s brain couldn’t quite compute that. It just- didn’t make sense. It was _Jyn Erso_ \- she was confident and incredible and most certainly not affected by Cassian’s presence.

He would have questioned Bodhi further, but Jyn then reappeared and declared she was going to go home. After checking up on Kay- and being sure he was fully engaged in a discussion with Kes and Shara- Cassian offered himself up as an escort home.

As they wandered out into the night air, Jyn took a deep breath, grinning as she did.

“Do you smell that? It smells fresh, like a night full of air blown in from off the sea,” she grinned brightly, with nostalgia tinging the edges.

Cassian took a breath and felt that same possibility fill his lungs, the feeling of not needing any sleep or food if you could live off this atmosphere of a night still young and rich with opportunity.

Jyn tilted her head up to look for the sparse stars that could be seen from the city.

“My mum used to take me star-gazing on nights like this. I don’t know the names of any of the constellations, I just remember sitting out with her and she would tell me to close my eyes for a moment so I could hear and feel everything so I could properly look at the stars when I opened them.”

Cassian listened to her and watched her profile, painted by the light of the moon and etched with wistful longing for the memories of days gone.

“What happened to her?”

Jyn paused, still looking at the skies.

“Mum got sick. And Dad got busy. And I got left at the doorstep of my godfather while Dad tried to sort himself out.”

Cassian hummed in the back of his throat, remembering all too well the hurt that could come from losing your parents, the loneliness that settled around him, the want to make them proud but at any moment when they would be, just wishing they were there to see it.

“What about you?” Jyn asked, sensing the story behind that noise.

“My parents were passing by a protest and when people came to break it up... they didn’t ask questions. They just acted. I grew up with my abuela and I always wanted to become a lawyer so there wouldn’t have to be protests, so I could maybe get just a little bit more justice for all the people fighting. I don’t want the hardworking people to have to pay the price for anyone else. Not again.”

Jyn doesn’t think it’s fair for someone in jeans to be so wise, so incredibly strong and brave and to look at her with such sincerity. Cassian Andor was an enigma- sarcastic and intelligent, fierce and solemn but _passionate_ in a way that few people were about life.

She really wanted to kiss him, but now wasn’t the time. A thought struck her.

“Is that why you said you didn’t have the choice?”

Jyn stopped walking and Cassian paused as well, turning to face her.

“Partly. Most of it was just that- I have to fight for every mark, every grade I get. Any job interview they try to manipulate me into saying whether I’m an immigrant. Even just as a kid, it was so much harder to do anything when some the other kids were looking for a reason to get in a fight with me.”

His expression was grim as Jyn added

“And me, waltzing in and looking like I was just wasting money and not even caring about passing...”

“It hit a bit of a nerve,” Cassian admitted, “Sorry about that.”

Jyn shrugged. She understood where Cassian was coming from, but it still rankled a little.

“It’s understandable,” but the way she said it made Cassian wonder.

“Have there been any classes you actually liked?”

Jyn sighed, “For all the classes I’ve taken, there aren’t any I can pursue.”

“Why not? Surely the cheaper tuition translates across all the faculties.”

“It’s not that. I really- the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do is what my mum did. I loved astronomy at school- physics and all the sciences. But Dad and I don’t even talk about her, I can’t imagine what he’d do if I told him I wanted to go into the same field.”

“If that’s what you want to do, I’m sure your father would want to help you. What’s the real reason you haven’t taken any astronomy?”

She played with the necklace, “This crystal was hers, you know. I carry a little bit of her around always and it’s stopped hurting so much now. But I feel like if I took astronomy, if I learned all the things she had-” Jyn stopped, dashing the tears that rose easier to the surface with the alcohol in her system, “I think maybe it would let it all the hurt back in. And I’m not sure if I could live with that again.”

Cassian didn’t think of himself as a tactile person, but when Jyn admitted that, he couldn’t stop himself from pulling her into his arms. For the days he had spent with her, he couldn’t help but feel privileged she would trust him enough to be vulnerable around him.

Jyn cried the tears she had never mourned for her mother, the ones for the relationship she and her father had lost.

When she calmed, he let his arms fall away as he said

“Jyn, you’re easily the strongest person I’ve ever met- I don’t think there’s anyone else who would have had the endurance to put up with me for two days straight. But you’re different now. And it’s ok that you’ve changed, your life has changed. You haven’t outgrown your mother, you’ve grown in loss. And it sounds like you and your mother are similar. Maybe this is a way to keep her memory alive, rather than just trying to forget the loss.”

Jyn mulled it over, obviously still thinking about it, but she responded, “You’re going to make a brilliant lawyer Cassian.”

(And dammit if his heart doesn’t beat harder in his chest at that)

\-----------------

The following day was the due date- and Cassian couldn’t help but wonder at how everything had changed in just a few short days.

By the time they had actually submitted the assignment, he was weak with relief at the idea he now had the weekend to do absolutely nothing.

(Well, maybe not nothing.

_‘Can’t sting a sentence together around you’_ is what Bodhi had said. Cassian hoped he wasn’t reading too far into anything.)

“Any plans for the weekend?” Cassian asked as they left the classroom together.

Jyn grinned, unaware of the way it made Cassian smile in response and grip his bag strap just a little tighter.

“Not really. A couple classes but not really much else. You?”

_Now or never,_ Cassian told himself. He didn’t want to fall out of Jyn Erso’s orbit (he didn’t know it, but Jyn had already realised her gravity kept her in sight of Cassian Andor and she wasn’t going to let him go easily).

“I was thinking I might take you up on Chirrut’s offer of a class,” Jyn sent a sideways look at him before he plunged on, “And then maybe I could buy you dinner?”

“Asking me on a date, Andor?” Jyn asked, a little breathlessly.

Cassian avoided her eyes, hearing only the pointed non-response, so he was shocked when she tugged his arm and as he swung to face her, Jyn kissed him- and he’s pretty sure he felt every nerve in his body set on fire and simultaneously settle into place for ever.

His blinding grin and Jyn’s answering laugh was the only confirmation he needed, ut he couldn’t help adding

“If I’d known you couldn’t string a sentence together around me-”

“Oh my god, who told you?” Her indignance at the ribbing made Cassian laugh all the harder.

So yes, Jyn Erso was pissed off- but only because Cassian asked her out before she could do it herself. 

(Luke won the bet, much to Bodhi's disappointment and Leia's annoyance, but he used his winnings to start the new pool about when Jyn and Cassian would get married, so it wasn't lost yet) 


End file.
